Gradkowski was thrown to the wolves as a rookie in 2006. Injuries led to him starting 11 games; Tampa went 3-8 in that stretch, with Gradkowski throwing for 9 TDs, 9 INTs, a passer rating of about 66 and under 128 yards a game. Two of his best games, unsurprisingly, came against New Orleans' awful pass defense. The Bucs won 2 of his first three starts before losing 7 of his last 8. The win was a solid 14-21-178, 2 TD performance against the Redskins, but Gradkowski threw 2 INTs in a loss at Dallas (passer rating of 29), 3 INTs the next week in a loss at Pittsburgh (passer rating of 36), and was replaced by Tim Rattay after a woeful 5-11-37 yard start to a week 15 loss at 2006's NFC champion, Chicago.
He relieved an injured Jeff Garcia (backup Luke McCown was also hurt) in a week 12 win over Washington in 2007, going an unimpressive 9-19-106, no TDs, no INTs.
Comments from tampabay.com posters after Gradkowski was waived, though they were a little more pre-occupied that day with the Bucs' re-signing of tight end/rapist/drunk driver Jerramy Stevens:
- Great news! Bruce has no potential
- Gruden/Allen will regret the move to release Grad. Gruden ruined another good QB! He will be back in Tampa one day to light it up against the Bucs. Gruden will be gone soon. He only likes 80 year old QB's. He has no clue or guts!
- I never liked Gradkowski. He was inaccurate, not a great throwing arm and could never lead our offense.
- Gradkowski is a heck of a QB! He took minimal talent and physical strength and size, and fought like a warrior. I think he clearly has the smarts, leading a Gruden offense, with a bad O-line, and questionable receivers as a ROOKIE. He played his heart out and gave us everything he had. I thank him for his contributions. Now, here's the truth though. He just wasn't good enough. He couldn't connect on the deep ball, struggled with some accuracy, and just didn't have enough tools. Hold your head high Grad! You gave us everything you got!
- The Bucs are playing a game of odds... and the odds are better that Stevens can stay out of trouble over Gradkowski ever being a decent QB. Bruce will get picked up by somebody that runs the WCO (Minnesota, Philly, Seattle) or a team that suits Bruce's strengths like handing off and predesigned movement (Tennessee)to compete for a team's 3rd QB spot.
- Gradkowski never had the arm strength or accuracy to succeed as our quarterback. Maybe in 5 years he will, but right now that's the right move by the Bucs.
- Easy on the Bruce bashing. He wasn't exactly surrounded w/talent when he was given the keys to the beater, known as the Bucs, evidence by the fact you couldn't read his name on the back of his jersey and it's damn near 10 letters. Young QB's aren't a good fit w/Gruden do to his system and verbage-Gruden himself loved the toughness in the guy. The Bucs have scrapheap qb's in camp. They'll, once again, try and win w/Defense. Hang in there Bruce.
- As far as Gradkowski goes, I liked him. He was a 6th rounder who got thrown into a starting position. He wasn't suppose to play that season. What did you expect?
Even accounting for the informed negative reviews, Gradkowski still has to be an improvement over Berlin. They'll certainly each have a chance to prove themselves at Rams training camp.
